History
Hakuyachō Station opened on 1 June 1915 with the Shinano Railway's Toyoshina–Hakuyachō extension. Connecting service via the combined-use Matsumoto Station began on 18 September 1916, and Shinano Railway was electrified for passenger trains on 8 January 1926. The line was nationalised on 1 June 1937, and on 15 August 1957 it became the Ōito Line when the Naka-Tsuchi–Kotaki section completed the through route. Operational entrustment began on 9 November 1970, freight ended on 7 December the same year, and parcel handling stopped in February 1984. The station was destaffed on 22 March 1985, returned to JR East at privatisation in April 1987, and accepted Suica from 15 March 2025 when it joined the Tokyo metropolitan suburban zone.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The unusual station name is a 1915 portmanteau of the two neighbouring hamlets it served — Kashiwabara ("Kashiwa") and Yahara ("Ya") — joined by the suffix "chō" to yield "Hakuyachō."